Trap shooting advice for getting started.

Rockrivr1 said:

I started shooting trap with a Rem 870 w/ a 26" bbl. I wasn't very good, but I don't think it was the gun. I moved to a Mossberg Silver Reserve II O/U shotgun w/ 30" bbls and my accuracy improved. I think it was because the Mossberg just fit me better. I was also getting a little better from shooting more often and getting used to that type of shooting. You already have some good advice on how to start, stance and gun so I'd add one other thing. Get yourself a belt shell box holder. Comes in handy when loading your gun. If you shoot trap it's a PITA to keep bending down to get a shell out of the box when it's sitting on the ground. A belt holder will make your experience that much better. There fairly inexpensive and easy to use.

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A half vest is better, particularly if you reload, but even if you don't, not all clubs have kids working there that pick up the hulls in between rounds. For fall and winter shooting a vest or a cold weather shooting coat are nice to have.

entropy said:

A half vest is better, particularly if you reload, but even if you don't, not all clubs have kids working there that pick up the hulls in between rounds. For fall and winter shooting a vest or a cold weather shooting coat are nice to have.

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Yep, I have a Wild Hare shooting coat for cold weather and currently use an old Cabelas heavy cotton duck half vest with back pouch for warm weather. With the half vest, I use carpenter suspenders to hold it up when there's a box in each pocket

I wear a Midway USA Competition belt (for 3-gun) with the inner belt, in my pants belt loops with my half vest. I'm planning on getting a Wild Hare coat, I shot a Jackpot Shoot on Feb 7th Wearing my Dan's hunting gear pheasant coat and my vest over that. It was about -12F when we shot this round:

That's me in the middle left, with my vest over the pheasant coat. Darryl on the left has the Wild Hare coat, don't know why he had it tucked in his pants, though. I really enjoy shooting with these guys, a good friend of mine ran the shoot. The two guys on either side of me run the jackpots shoots at Mpls. Gun Club.

DustyGmt said:

Wow. Excellent video. Those guys can shoot. I got a kick out of "this is a special camera gun". Lol. A high tech feat of engineering in its day, before the advent of the GoPro. But honestly, even though it was old grainy footage, it was excellent footage and a well constructed lesson. I probably couldn't find better honestly.

So my question is, when they fly out of the trap house hard left, hard right or straight away, do the follow the same trajectory on every line, such that if you were familiar with that range you could use a spot on the horizon, or a terrain marker for an aiming reference? Or do they have a little variation of trajectory so it's not predictable. I'm just wondering, I'm sure in either case it's quite the challenge, although those guys made it look easy...

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"Aiming points"(for lack of a better description) are something that everyone figures out for themselves. Start with the ones in the video, and adjust them after you've worked out most of the other bugs. (stance, pre-shot routine, etc.)
As for do they fly the same everytime? No. Wind, temperature, trap condition, and other variables will affect how they fly. That shoot above? The traps were cold even after having heaters on in the traphouses all night, and as a result, the birds were flying low, and the wind was playing with the clays too. See the wall behind us? It separates Trap #1 from the rifle range. Wind comes off that wall and pushes them so they fly at an angle, it makes them challenging.

DustyGmt said:

That's a good crew man. Looks like a lot of fun. I think I'm going to enjoy it. I asked my uncle if he would like to give it a try and he said he's definitely down to give it a go. I've got some shooters at the church who like to get together and shoot, I'm sure some of them would be eager to try. Could be a good thing for the range, the impression I got from the president of the club was membership was dwindling and they were wanting to get folks involved.

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That's the spirit! We have two church teams in our league. Indeed, Coaching high school trapshooters has been the most rewarding part of my getting back into it, and coaching 4-Her's is why I did. Shooting with them, I remembered how much fun it was. I shot league and ATA trap from 14 to 22, when I enlisted in the Army.

entropy said:

I wear a Midway USA Competition belt (for 3-gun) with the inner belt, in my pants belt loops with my half vest. I'm planning on getting a Wild Hare coat, I shot a Jackpot Shoot on Feb 7th Wearing my Dan's hunting gear pheasant coat and my vest over that. It was about -12F when we shot this round:
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That's me in the middle left, with my vest over the pheasant coat. Darryl on the left has the Wild Hare coat, don't know why he had it tucked in his pants, though. I really enjoy shooting with these guys, a good friend of mine ran the shoot. The two guys on either side of me run the jackpots shoots at Mpls. Gun Club.

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Y'all can keep that -12 "schtuff"........spent two LONG winters in ND - never again........

I have the LH version of this:


Very nice for cold weather shooting

DustyGmt said:

Are pump guns just not really the appropriate tool?

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Howdy

Most of the guys at my club shoot single shots or over and unders. I shoot with some pretty competitive guys, and most of them have some pretty high end shotguns. My favorite trap gun is this 12 gauge Winchester Model 12 that left the factory in 1948, two years before I did. Almost all of our shooting is singles trap from the 16 yard line, so a repeater really does not have any advantage. The added advantage of a pump over a semi-auto is I can dump the fired hull into my hand. With a semi-auto, unless you have a shell catcher on it you will be peppering the guy to your right with your empties. Most of us do not like that. Since this photo was taken I have had an adjustable butt plate added to make it fit me a little bit better.






I have never tried doubles with it, because I know the gun would bobble around while I was working the action for the second shot, but guns like this were used for many years for both singles and doubles trap by guys who knew how to use them. One of these days I will have to try some doubles and see if I can hit the second target.

12 gauge is a must. You will be throwing more pellets with a 12 gauge then with a 20. More pellets means less chance the target will slip through a hole in your pattern. This old Winchester comes from the days before interchangeable chokes, it is choked full. I learned to shoot with a full choke, so that is fine, but lots of shooters prefer a slightly more open choke like an Improved Modified. With the tighter pattern of a full choke, I need to be right on target a little bit better than if the choke was slightly more open. A more open choke allows the pellets to spread out a little bit more before they reach the target.

Yes, unlike a field gun, you always want a trap gun to be shooting high. Targets leave the trap house rising a bit, then at a certain point they arc over as gravity takes over and start descending towards the ground. You want to be hitting the target while it is still rising. If you wait until it arcs over and starts falling down, it will be too far out for a reliable hit. So with a trap gun, you want the gun to point up slightly, so your shot is rising towards the pattern.

Traditionally, most trap guns have two beads. One at the muzzle, and a second bead halfway down the barrel. If the gun fits you properly, the two beads will line up, with the front bead 'sitting on top' of the rear bead. It looks like a figure eight. If the beads do not form a figure eight when you mount the gun, it does not fit you properly.

Trap can be lots of fun. It can also be frustrating as the dickens if you go into a slump and are having trouble getting good scores. Be patient. It usually takes many hundreds of shots before you start to get good.

My favorite trap load is a 12 gauge, 2 3/4", 2 3/4 dram, 1 1/8 ounce load of #8 shot. In normal times you can often buy 4 packs of shells at places like Wallmart for a discount, but they tend to be 3 dram loads, too much kick for my taste.

Keep your eye(s) on the target, not on the sight(s).

Back in the sixties and seventies pumps like the Winchester Model 12 was the way to go. Pumps have fallen out of favor for a couple of reasons. Trap is a single shot game. Other forms like doubles, skeet, sporting claps and 5 stand are multi shot games and so o/u or semi-autos are better suited. Pumps can be used to shoot single shots in some games like skeet and sporting clays. Pumps can also work if you can maintain a sight image and rapidly pump the action. Pumps of cheap right now compared to other types of 12 gauge guns. Your Mossberg will work, but as you get serious, you will find 28 to 30 inch barrels are better. Also be aware trap guns naturally shoot high in front of the target and field guns need to cover the target. Covering a target is a hinderance because targets can change direction and you won't notice til it's too late. A real good video to watch on u-tube is "Shooting with the Remington Pros," by D. Lee Braun. You also may also find a used book by the same title, which shows basic shooting positions, foot position, body language and aiming points. I use that book as my Bible.

SwampWolf said:

Keep your eye(s) on the target, not on the sight(s).

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I can't tell you how many times I have heard that.

"You shouldn't see the sights, only the target" and other stuff like that.

It isn't that simple. Before I call for the target, I aim, yes aim, my shotgun at the appropriate point on the front edge of the trap house. When the target emerges from the trap house, I keep my eye on the target, but I can still see the barrel. When the barrel catches up to the target, I pull the trigger. The momentum of my swing to the target continues as I follow through.

But I can see my barrel pretty much the whole time the target is in flight.

Driftwood Johnson said:

I can't tell you how many times I have heard that.

"You shouldn't see the sights, only the target" and other stuff like that.

It isn't that simple. Before I call for the target, I aim, yes aim, my shotgun at the appropriate point on the front edge of the trap house. When the target emerges from the trap house, I keep my eye on the target, but I can still see the barrel. When the barrel catches up to the target, I pull the trigger. The momentum of my swing to the target continues as I follow through.

But I can see my barrel pretty much the whole time the target is in flight.

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BUT, unlike metallic - as I said above - your FOCUS is on the target whereas with pistol they say focus on the front sight. If you need to wiggle around and aim the barrel before calling pull, your gun fit isn't quite as good as it needs to be. You should be able to mount with your eyes closed and when open, the muzzle is pointing right where it needs to be.

Simple drill at home is to follow the line where the wall meets the ceiling (do I need to state to make sure the gun is unloaded?) and follow it L2R and then R2L

My Model 12 fits fine. That's why I had the adjustable butt plate installed. When I say I aim at the appropriate point on the front edge of the trap house I mean just that. That is where I aim the gun. No wiggling is involved. Then when the target emerges I track it with my eyes, and my barrel catches up. With my eyes still on the target, when my muzzle passes underneath the target I pull the trigger. Follow though happens then. If I do everything right, my full choke reduces the target to dust.

Good! I see way too many folks come out with one of those damn glow pipes at the end of their muzzle so they focus there and not on the target and then wonder why they missed.

I took a class with Nora Ross a couple of years ago. She is a world class trap shooter. She said the exact same thing about glow in the dark sights on a trap gun. Too distracting and draw the shooter's eye to the sight, away from the target. I have been shooting trap for around 25 years or so. I evolved my method over that time. When I took Nora's class I was dumbfounded when she described her method, which is exactly the same as mine.

I use a 870 trap gun for trap. I also switch things up for sporting clays, auto or pump, 12ga or 20ga. I found a 870 skeet barrel in a shop last summer and put it on my trap gun for sporting clays. It worked out pretty good and I even shot better than a couple guys with some real high end guns. This weekend it’ll be the 16ga pump. For myself it’s about having a good time and experimenting. Be focused but not to serious.

DustyGmt said:

Well I picked up some supplies to start warming up to it a lil bit. Lil foot actuated thrower and a few cases of clays. I was pleasantly surprised to see these 90ct cases for less than $7. I was expecting $15-$18 for some reason, I believe I've seen them go for that but I could be wrong. I'm looking forward to trying this out. Should be a blast. Thanks guys for all your help and keep the info coming if you've got it. This has been very helpful gentlemen. I appreciate it.

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Just one thing about those BIO targets; they do not use pitch but a sulfur compound which, if you do not neutralize with lime, will kill any and all vegetation where they land after a while; just a heads up on that which many folks do not realize until their backyard or gun club looks like a lunar landing zone

Have fun!

They also kill my desire to shoot at them. They are harder than Lawrys. More 'pushed' birds, more chipped birds, less smokeballs.

entropy said:

They also kill my desire to shoot at them. They are harder than Lawrys. More 'pushed' birds, more chipped birds, less smokeballs.

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Sounds like you need to center-punch them better!.....

They will if you hit them with the center of your pattern. BIOs will also, however, merely show some dust coming off (counts as a loss if no visible chips) if you only glance it with a few pellets from the fringe of the pattern. It only tales 3-5 pellets to break a clay target.

George P said:

Good! I see way too many folks come out with one of those damn glow pipes at the end of their muzzle so they focus there and not on the target and then wonder why they missed.

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Interesting. My Browning Citori came with the green fiber optic front site and overall I think it works better then the bead. Obviously my opinion, but I think it helps me keep track of the bbls in my periphery as I'm swinging towards the target. To each there own, but for me I like the fiber optic front sight.

I have clay guns with and without Hi Viz sights. The ones that do came with them. I shoot both equally well. I dont pay attention to the sight. You could probably swap my color or the sight even pull the sight off my gun and I likely wouldn't know it.

In the beginning, I believed color and size mattered. Once I figured out gun fit, I found I didn't really need a bead at all.